AN ILLINOIS STATE TREASURER WHO'S ACTUALLY AN AMERICAN, A CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT & A REAL AUDITOR ... WHAT A CONCEPT!

AN ILLINOIS STATE TREASURER WHO'S ACTUALLY AN AMERICAN, A CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT & A REAL AUDITOR ... WHAT A CONCEPT!

By John H. Croessman, August 02. 2013

Du Quoin hadn't seen lumber heir Jason Plummer since he campaigned last fall as a Republican candidate in the 12th District against Rep. Bill Enyart, who was elected as the freshman congressman to replace Jerry Costello.

Plummer walked in the newspaper offices on Thursday, not as a candidate, but as an advocate for electing DuPage County auditor Bob Grogan as treasurer in Illinois.

"I can think of eight treasurers in the past in Illinois and not one of them is a certified public accountant (CPA) or an auditor," said Grogan. "That's what I do."

Now, there's an idea.

Grogan said he will formally announce his candidacy the middle of August, but was in the area with Plummer and just wanted to stop. He will be at the Du Quoin State Fair.

Grogan graduated from Miami University with a double major in economics and political science. He has been active in politics over the years serving as a campaign coordinator for a number of Republican campaigns, a Republican committeeman, and vice-chairman for Downers Grove Township Republican organization. In the private sector he has worked for Bank One, ABN AMRO, and Legacy Professionals LLP. In 2008 he was elected DuPage County auditor and was re-elected in November of last year.

OK, we all know how venal the various governments in Illinois are, right? Well, let's talk about some good news in the Land of Lincoln for a change.

Grogan has launched an impressive transparency in government effort on the DuPage County website. Grogan had pledged recently to "provide the citizens and taxpayers of DuPage County with timely and pertinent information regarding the operations of DuPage County government" and it looks like he is making good on his promise.

Only one month after starting his new, elected position, Grogan launched a section of the website where county expenditure reports can be viewed by anyone. The reports are broken down in several ways; by department, vendor or individual project. Each report has a search feature and Grogan's office will be updating the reports monthly.

Grogan's is the first government office in the State of Illinois to launch such an online government transparency project and, here is the amazing part: he did it without spending a penny beyond the budget of his office.Amazing, is it not?

Grogan thinks it will actually save money.

In addition to the openness the reports provide to taxpayers, Grogan said he believes it will cut back on Freedom of Information Act requests and save his office time dealing with those questions.

Let's hope the rest are paying attention.